JavaScript REGEX pattern matching

Question

I am completely new to JS, and having trouble figuring out how to validate that the input via prompt CONTAINS three or more words, seperated by spaces, only alphabetical characters.

This is what I have:

var p = prompt("Enter a phrase:", "");
var phr = p.search(/^[^0-9][2,3]$/);

  if(phr != 0)
{
   alert("invalid");return
}
else{document.write("phr");

@Floris- \w will match digits also. Besides that your expression will require, for a string three character long, to have an additional space. — edi_allen
– edi_allen, Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 20:22
@edi_allen - you were right. Don't know what I was thinking. — Floris
– Floris, Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 20:49

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-31 20:14:35Z

2

Use:

if (/^([a-z]+\s+){2,}[a-z]+$/i.test(p))

Explanation:

[a-z] = alphabetic character
[a-z]+ = 1 or more alphabetic character, i.e. a word
[a-z]+\s+ = word followed by 1 or more whitespace characters
([a-z]+\s+) = at least 2 words with whitespace after each
([a-z]+\s+){2,}[a-z]+ = the above followed by 1 more word
^([a-z]+\s+){2,}[a-z]+$ = anchor the above to the beginning and end of the string

The i modifier makes it case-insensitive, so it will allow uppercase letters as well.

answered Oct 31, 2013 at 20:14

Barmar

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Comments

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-02 09:13:27Z

1

prompt CONTAINS three or more words, seperated by spaces, only alphabetical characters.

You can try this regex:

/^[a-z]+( +[a-z]+){2,}$/i

edited Nov 2, 2013 at 9:13

answered Oct 31, 2013 at 20:13

anubhava

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2 Comments

Boaz Over a year ago

^/ should probably be /^, isn't it?

anubhava Over a year ago

@Boaz: Thanks so much, it was a typo, fixed it.

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